re: Lakers don’t make playoffs...win lottery...select Zion. Discuss the ramifications of NBA

The only can’t miss superstar was Grant Hill, and even he wasn’t looked at as the “one” albeit in a very talented top heavy draft.

Elton Brand was accurately projected as a guy with a great floor and solid ceiling. Same with Christian Laettner. People had Kyrie neck and neck with Brandon Knight and Derrick Williams, especially Chad Ford who thought those should have been the Cavs picks at 1 and 4.

Tatum, Bagley, and Okafor were generally disliked by the analysts as top 3 picks. Tatum has clearly shown that was a bad review of him. Bagley, too. They were clearly right about Okafor.

Ingram was looked at as a top 3 prospect in a terrible draft but certainly not a unique prospect.

Winslow, Redick, Kennard, Gerald Henderson, Carlos Boozer, Austin Rivers, Rodney Hood, Tyus Jones, etc were all picked late lottery through the second round so no one thought that highly of them.

The only guy that remotely fits your categorization is Jabari Parker, although Duke fans felt much differently about him than Zion due to effort. He had a ton of hype in high school, including the SI cover as the best prospect of the decade. The last guy to get that acclaim was Harrison Barnes.

There is one guy I can’t speak of, and that’s Danny Ferry as he was before my time.

There are between 0-3 players who get this level of hype in a draft, and I bet the most common numbers are 0 and 1, which makes sense as there are probably 15 American college guys who would be called perennial all stars.

Being generous, I would say the Duke guys with that hype were Grant Hill, Elton Brand, Jabari Parker, and Kyrie.